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Freddie Mercury to Appear on Stage as an ‘Optical Illusion’
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Performances, Rock,
Freddie Mercury is to appear on stage as an "optical illusion."
The late Queen front man - who passed away in 1991 - will seem to perform for an audience at musical We Will Rock You, which is based on the band's music, to mark the tenth anniversary of the show in London.
Queen guitarist Brian May told BBC news the new "effect" was "an optical illusion of sorts." He added, "People will come out saying, 'did we actually see Freddie?'" However, Brian said the effect used will be different to the hologram technology which made late rapper Tupac Shakur appear on stage and perform at Coachella festival in California last month.
"It's a little unfortunate they did that thing with Tupac as we've been trying to make Freddie appear on the stage for quite a while The hologram technique is something we've looked at ourselves but I think probably for a show that runs eight shows a week it's not really practical."
The special edition show of We Will Rock You will take place on May 14 at London's Dominion Theatre. Queen have previously made live appearances where Freddie appears to sing the band's hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" using a backing track and video footage of him singing the song.
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Damon Albarn Finds His Opera Hard to Explain
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Performances, Folk, Rock, Soundtracks, New Releases,
Damon Albarn worries people think he has "lost it."
The Blur frontman is currently focused on his Dr. Dee project - a play and accompanying album of folk opera inspired by Elizabethan mathematician Dr. John Dee - and admit she is "nervous" about the response to the music
because it is very different to his previous work.
"It's not an easy listen and it's not an easy thing to talk about. That's what's making me really nervous at the moment. I want to be enthusiastic about it and explain, but the language you have to inevitably use to explain a record like this, in the modern idiom - especially in pop music - just looks completely mad. It looks like I've completely lost it."
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Black Sabbath Announce Homecoming Gig
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Performances, Reunions, Upcoming Releases, Rock,
Black Sabbath will play a one-off UK homecoming gig in Birmingham next month. The "Paranoid" rockers will perform at the O2 Academy in the city - home to singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward - on May 19 in preparation for their headline performance at this year's Download Festival in Leicestershire over the weekend of June 8-10.
The performance is expected to be the group's first since they reformed with their original line-up last year, and they are likely to play new material from their forthcoming ninth studio album - which will be their first since 1978's Never Say Die - at the concert.
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Dr. Dre Wants Hendrix and Gaye Holograms
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Performances, Hip-Hop & Rap, R&B / Soul, Rock,
Dr. Dre hopes to see Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye return to the stage as holograms.
The rapper was a key figure in developing a hologram of Tupac Shakur - which performed on stage with him at Coachella on Sunday last week, fifteen years after the star's death - and is hoping the technology can be used for other deceased performers, such as the guitarist and the soul legend.
"Hopefully, different artists are able to bring out their favorite artists. Hopefully, we can see Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye. Let's see what happens," he told TMZ.
The "Forgot About Dre" rapper is rumored to be taking the holographic Tupac on tour, but has to find a find a way of making it project 360 degrees: "I'm not sure right now, if there's a technology that's happening where the hologram could be 360 degrees. Right now it's flat, it just looks like it's three dimensional from the front, but I'm working on some new and different things for the future."
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Nicki Minaj Horrified by Madonna Kiss
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gossip, Performances, Hip-Hop & Rap, Pop,
Nicki Minaj was horrified when Madonna kissed her during their Super Bowl half-time performance.
The "Starships" rapper joined the 53-year-old singer on stage at the event in February and while the pair locked lips, Nicki, 29, insists she had didn't plan it: "You can't really call it making out. She kissed me but I didn't kiss her back. I wasn't expecting it and I was shocked like everyone else. I was shaking and thinking, 'Is this really happening, why is she doing this?' It was the strangest thing ... she had very soft lips."
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Tupac Skakur Closes Coachella Festival
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Performances, Hip-Hop & Rap,
Tupac Shakur helped close the Coachella festival last Sunday - 16 years after his death.
The rapper - who was shot dead in a gang killing in 1996 - appeared on stage as a hologram to perform with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre at the annual festival in California.
He gave a spooky rendition of "Hail Mary" before duetting with Snoop on "Ain't Nothin' Like A Gangsta Party," before leaving the festivalgoers with the line, "Coachella, I wanna say thank you for all the love over the years."
The Tupac hologram drew mixed reactions from fans, with one saying it was "wrong on so many levels."
Another person, however, wrote on Twitter, "This is dope," while someone else added, "I told y'all Tupac wasn't dead! (sic)"
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Sex Pistols Turned Down Olympics
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Performances, Rock,
The Sex Pistols turned down the chance to play at the Olympics. The legendary punk band were asked to reform and perform at the huge summer sporting event in London, but singer John Lydon turned the opportunity down as it doesn't fit with his punk ideology.
"They tried to get us involved in the Olympics, and what they wanted to do was, they're going to do this thing where celebrities go around the stadium on the back of flat top lorries. So there will be Naomi Campbell in a Vivienne Westwood dress, followed by Madness doing 'Baggy Trousers,' and then the Pistols doing 'Pretty Vacant.' But without the 'vay-****,' just 'pretty' and the word 'censored.' So the answer is, 'no f***ing way.' Don't need it, don't want it," he told NME Magazine.
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Nicki Minaj Brings New York to Standstill
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Artist News, Music Videos, Performances, Hip-Hop & Rap,
Nicki Minaj brought Times Square in New York to a standstill this weekend. The "Super Bass" rapper's performance saw 30,000 people descend on the landmark - one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections - on Friday night, stopping all traffic as she launched the new Nokia Lumia 900 smartphone in the US.
The performance also featured one of the world's largest LED displays as Nokia took over all of the hundreds of screens in the square. Fans heard an exclusive remix of Nicki's track "Starships" by DJ Doorly and were filmed to be included in the Nokia music video for the track.
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One Direction Tops US Album Charts
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Performances, The Charts, Pop, New Releases,
One Direction have become the first British group to enter the US charts at number one with a debut album.
The "What Makes You Beautiful" hitmakers - Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson - made history by selling more than 176,000 copies of their Up All Night album since its release last Tuesday.
"We simply cannot believe that we are number one in America! It's beyond a dream come true for us. We want to thank each and every one of our fans in the US who bought our album and we would also like to thank the American public for being so supportive of us," Harry said.
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Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee is ‘Spookily Evocative’
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Concerts / Tours, Performances, Classical,
The music of Damon Albarn's Dr. Dee project is "spookily evocative."
The opera, about the life of an Elizabethan scientist, first opened last year at the Manchester International Festival, and has been turned into a studio album which is described as "visual" and "evocative" by collaborator Mike Smith.
"It's spookily evocative, that's what I think when I play it. It's very visual. You can almost see it, it's that evocative. There's a dramatic element to the music on its own," he said.
Conductor André de Ridder agrees with Mike, calling Dr. Dee "emotional."
"It's very deep and emotional music. It's kind of magic but also mysterious subject matter but as it sinks in it grows on you. It's wonderful and it opens up new rooms and spaces each time you perform it," he said.
Damon previously said he wrote the opera because of his ''strong emotional connection'' to the character: "I've got a really strange emotional connection - it really gets to me, that haunted, magical England. It's something that really stirs me in an irrational way. It's just amazing how much color there is in his ideas. Just imagine the English now if we had kept that spirit in our hearts."
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